Phormium tenaChocomint - New Zealand Flax

The Phormium hybrid Chocomint is a variety of New Zealand Flax with a rare color combination of chocolate brown and green. This clump-forming plant, with a bold habit, reveals its beauty in the sun when its long brown leaves, bronze to purple, show margins ranging from mint green to shiny olive green. Give this magnificent perennial a deep, fertile soil and the mildness of a coastal garden. It will also thrive in a large pot in all regions.

The 'Chocomint' New Zealand Flax is a recent New Zealand cultivar. Like all Phormiums, it belongs to the agave family. It is a variety mainly derived from Phormium cookianum or mountain flax, and to a lesser extent from P. tenax, the larger of the two New Zealand species. This superb rhizomatous perennial develops slowly, forming a wide non-spreading clump. With an upright and spreading habit, it reaches an average height of 80 cm (32in) depending on the growing conditions, with a spread of 75 cm (30in) or more in fertile and moist soil. The evergreen leaves are 4 to 5 cm (2in) wide and up to 1 m (3ft) long, slightly stiff and pointed at their tips. Their color, more pronounced when the plant grows in full sun, is a mixture of different shades of brown in the center of the leaf, bordered by several shades of green, with a lighter central stripe running through the lamina. Tall flower stalks, at least 1.10 m (4ft) high, appear from May to July, depending on the climate, overhanging the foliage clump. They are tinged with purple and bear curved tube-like flower spikes, which turn more or less bright red when ripe. This flowering attracts certain birds and numerous pollinating insects.

Phormium 'Chocomint'  is a highly ornamental plant, suitable for large borders or large rockeries in mild climates. Whether used as a specimen or planted in groups, it structures the space and gives a very exotic charm to the garden. It can be enhanced by silver ground cover plants such as dwarf artemisias, Nepeta mussinii, silver basket, or blue fescue carpets. Like tall grasses, it is also a wonderful perennial for a modern garden with clean lines, for example, planted on a bed of pebbles. In cold regions, it can be planted in a very large pot on the terrace or balcony, to admire its elegance during the growing season, and overwintered frost-free in a cool greenhouse or a lightly heated conservatory. In an urban garden, it softens concrete structures. For an exotic and contrasting atmosphere, it can be associated, for example, with Leptospermum scoparium, a pink to red ball-shaped shrub flowering in summer, Helichrysum rosmarinifolium 'Silver Jubilee', Pittosporum tenuifolium Tom Thumb, or Olearia macrodonta 'Major', plants also originating from Oceania, perfect for coastal locations.

The Maoris use Phormiums as we use linen, for their fibers that are exploited in the textile industry. This is probably why they are commonly known as 'New Zealand Flax'.